![Demonstrators take part in anti-Israel and anti-U.S. demonstrations after Ghadir Khumm celebrations turned into protest marches in response to Israeli attacks targeting civilian areas, on June 14, 2025, in Tehran, Iran. [Fatemeh Bahrami - Anadolu Agency]](https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/AA-20250614-38278958-38278921-PROTEST_IN_TEHRAN_AGAINST_ISRAELS_ATTACKS_ON_IRAN.jpg)
As bombs rain down on Iranian cities and missiles arc across the skies of the Middle East, we must speak plainly: this is not merely a war between Israel and Iran. It is a war against sovereignty, waged by an Israeli-Western coalition that has long sought to dismantle any state in the Global South that dares to chart an independent course. Iran is not the aggressor in this conflict. It is defending itself, legally, historically, and strategically from a premeditated assault. The airstrikes Israel launched on 13 June were not acts of deterrence; they were the execution phase of a long-orchestrated operation aimed at crippling Iran’s infrastructure, destabilising its political system, and ultimately returning it to the kind of failed […]